The Gender Gap on Television

Media Matters for America released a report this week showing that only a handful of female economists appeared on evening cable news shows in the last 12 months. They found that more than 90 percent of the economists that appeared on television in the past year were men.

EPI experts both male and female do get interviewed very often—which shows just how helpful EPI research can be. Heidi Shierholz recently discussed the incredibly hard odds for job seekers with Marketplace’s Sabri Ben-Achour, drawing on her analysis that shows that job seekers outnumbered job openings by 2.5-to-1 in February.

It’s easy to see how Heidi’s analysis made this story come alive. Now we just need to convince more television producers.

According to Wikipedia, “. .”As of late 2013, 45 Nobel Memorial Prizes in Economic Sciences have been given to 74 individuals.[5] Seven awards have been given for contributions to the field of macroeconomics, more than any other category.[6] The institution with the most affiliated Nobel laureates in Economics is the University of Chicago, which has 28 affiliated laureates.. . ” [And by examining the names and/or images of recipients, all were males]. How might we account for this imbalance with respect to gender?

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EPI is an independent, nonprofit think tank that researches the impact of economic trends and policies on working people in the United States. EPI’s research helps policymakers, opinion leaders, advocates, journalists, and the public understand the bread-and-butter issues affecting ordinary Americans.